money OnPolitics: We're still figuring out how the Capitol riot happened
Happy Tuesday, OnPolitics readers!
Today our eyes were glued to the hearings on Capitol Hill. Senators questioned the current and former leaders of four law enforcement agencies about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The hearing before two Senate committees was the officials' first public testimony about the deadly riots.
It's Mabinty. Let me fill you in on the news.
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Who knew what and when?
Former President Donald Trump may have been acquitted over the riot but lawmakers still want answers.
Top Capitol law enforcement officials on Tuesday said they did not see intelligence from the FBI the night before the U.S. Capitol riot that warned of calls for violence online and said groups were “preparing for war.”
Under questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the chair of one of the panels leading the hearing, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said the report was received at Capitol Police headquarters the night before the Jan. 6 riot, but leadership did not see it.
“I actually just in the last 24 hours was informed by the department that they had received that report," Sund told lawmakers.
The senators were not impressed.
The new disclosure only underscored what lawmakers described as a "colossal" security breakdown in intelligence sharing, training and equipping officers who were badly over-run by an armed mob bent on halting the certification of President Joe Biden's election.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said “there’s no question in my mind there was a failure” to take the risk of the Jan. 6 riot “more seriously.”
That's not all that happened on the Hill
🌾 The Senate confirmed Tom Vilsack as President Joe Biden's agriculture secretary Tuesday, returning the former Iowa governor to the role he held for eight years under former President Barack Obama.
🏞 Deb Haaland, a Native American congresswoman who is Biden's historic pick for Interior Secretary, found herself defending not only the president's aggressive efforts to stop drilling on public lands but also her own public statements opposing fossil fuel extraction.
😷 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra faced the Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor & Pensions for his confirmation hearing as the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
⚖️ All five witnesses at Merrick Garland's confirmation hearing Tuesday praised the judge and former federal prosecutor, signaling his likely have bipartisan confirmation next week as Biden's attorney general.
🌍 The Senate approved Linda Thomas-Greenfield's nomination Tuesday to be ambassador to the United Nations, a post that will quickly thrust her into the international spotlight.
OK, here's the news you probably missed but should know about:
The president and first lady Jill Biden will head to Houston on Friday as Texas recovers from last week's winter storms that left millions without power.
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton are proposing to raise the federal minimum wage to $10, but there's a catch.
A federal program that provides loans to businesses to help them stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic is undergoing some changes to allow more money to be directed at small businesses that need it most.
It's 5'oclock somewhere. Have a margarita (or a Snapple for all my fellow teetotalers out there.) — Mabinty
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Senate grills law enforcement on the Capitol riot: OnPolitics
